Whe
n it comes to learning lead generation techniques for your MLM network marketing business, you are wasting your time. At first blush, this may seem like a rather outrageous statement, particularly since it flies in the face of all the hype that exists about network marketing being a golden opportunity to earn an independent income without working for a boss. However, statistics show that 9 out of 10 times, the advice you receive from your up-line to simply plug into a simple lead generation system is a lie. And it is a lie because the idea of a duplicate system is a myth.
Depending on your up-line, when you ask about lead generation techniques, you may be either directed towards Old School Network Marketing or New School Network Marketing. Old school methods are those that were in vogue when Network Marketing first started shortly after World War II. New school methods use our current telecommunications technology to reach more people with considerably less effort. Unfortunately, neither school actually works because they are based on an incorrect premise. This premise is that network marketing is easy and that if you can speak to enough people about your marketing opportunity, you will soon be rolling in the money promised when you first joined your MLM. The truth of the matter is that Network Marketing is as challenging as any other business that you might get involved in. Despite claims to the contrary, it is not a way to get rich quick.
Old School Network Marketing
Old School Network Marketing consists of the following lead generation practices:
1. Make a list of everyone you know and contact them by phone or e-mail.
2. Walk around public parking lots and put flyers on the next MLM meeting on car windows. One popular technique is to use photocopied images of a $100 dollar bill and ask if the recipient would like to learn of a fun way to earn extra income.
3. Visit a mall, shopping center, department store, or supermarket can try to engage in conversations with customers and salespeople. Usually, it is best to pretend that you are a shopper because most stores frown on solicitations.
4. Go door to door, leaving fliers on doorknobs. It’s also possible to knock on doors and talk to people, but often people are reluctant to engage in conversations on their doorsteps.
5. Put your business cards on any bulletin board you can find. For example, you may be able to leave them in laundromats and in supermarkets. You can also place them in fishbowls in restaurants that are offering a free lottery for meals.
6. Go through a phone book and make cold calls. Set a schedule to make a certain number of calls a day and make a list of people who might be interested at a later date. However, a more targeted way to do this is to buy a list from a list broker. This list will consist of people who have raised their hands. They have filled out a survey indicating an interest in being contacted by someone who has an interesting business idea for them. The fresher the list, the more expensive it will be.
7. Visit public events and speak to anyone who is within 3 feet of you. Carnivals, job fairs, and church events are ideal places to meet new people.
8. Put advertising in newspapers, tabloids, and magazines. If you are on a restricted budget, you can use classified ads, otherwise use display ads as they attract much more attention.
9. Find a list broker and get a list of people have been interested in business opportunities. You can then call them and describe how your particular MLM can help them achieve financial independence.
10. Go to meetup groups where people are looking for employment opportunities. Another variation of targeting job seekers is to sign up as an employer at job fairs and talk to people about your opportunity when they approach your table with their resumes in hand.
While on the surface, these may seem like excellent ideas, these practices require a great deal of effort and produce minimal results. Unfortunately, when people first sign up with an MLM, they are never told about the simple fact that over the long run, these methods are not sustainable. They require ongoing expenses as well as considerable amounts of time and physical stamina. Even if you are one of those rare people who actually happen to enjoy a modicum of success with these local marketing methods, how long can you keep walking around from one day to the next trying to find someone who is interested in your network marketing opportunity without burning out? Moreover, even if you are an unusually persistent person, as well as remarkably gregarious, your hopes of creating a downline that will be willing to do what you do for long is rather slim. You will soon discover that the rate of downline attrition is much higher than the rate with which you can add new people to your team.
New School Network Marketing
When people fail at the Old School gumshoe method of network marketing because it is very hard to find qualified people by simply engaging with people at random, they turn to New School Internet or mobile marketing. This method is also often referred to as Attraction Marketing. The theory behind this methodology is to let your fingers do the walking on your keyboard as you to recruit people through the Internet.
Here are some common practices behind Attraction Marketing:
1. Begin by buying a course on Attraction Marketing. This will walk you through the various terms, concepts, and processes of marketing online. Ideally, get a multimedia presentation because it will be easier to follow instructions from a video rather than reading an e-book
2. Build a basic website or blog where you can post articles about your MLM opportunity. Provide affiliates links to your corporate website so that people can sign up either as customers or as business builders.
3. Create a few videos and place them on your website as well as on video-sharing websites like YouTube.
4. Build a squeeze page on your website to capture names and e-mail addresses. Offer something free in exchange for this information. For instance, you can offer a free video or e-book about how to do Attraction Marketing. In addition, to a squeeze page and a free gift for people who sign up, you should create a regular newsletter. There are many e-mail providers who can give you an autoresponder and provide you with newsletter templates. Send out weekly, biweekly, or monthly installments. It’s important that most of the content you send out be highly informative rather than a sales pitch. Creating a newsletter will allow you to create a relationship with your customers. When they can come to know, like, and trust you, they are more likely to buy from you.
5. Attend tele-seminars on Internet marketing and network marketing solutions to expand your understanding of how to reach customers online.
6. Your website or blog will be an island unless you join social networking sites, participate in forums, and add lots of regular content to your site.
7. For traffic generation, you can use either free or paid methods to get people to your website. Free methods will involve time and effort while paid methods require that you have a sufficient advertising budget. An example of a free method is placing an ad on Craigslist and an example of the paid method is advertising on Google’s pay per click search engine.
Besides being a little more challenging to set up then the Old School method, this merely a variation on an old theme. It is highly unlikely that it will result in a vibrant new business. Instead you’re much more likely to find that the sales material you have on your website does not convert as well as you had hoped and that generating traffic is a full-time business requiring either lots of expenses on your part or a considerable amount of time and effort. This method is based on Internet marketing, and the ironic thing about Internet marketing is that only 3% of people who try it are actually successful at it.
Where Do You Go From Here?
If all the Old School and the New School methods of lead generation do not work, where do you go to get the leads you need to run your business? For most people, it means the end of the line. Consequently, 90% of people who join a network link marketing opportunity full of enthusiasm usually quit within three months. However, there is another alternative which is seldom discussed and that is to hire a professional team to do the lead generation and selling on your behalf. We at Tru180 have created such a system. In order to find out more about our highly effective technological innovations in the field of network marketing, please sign up for our latest launch at http://www.25todrive.net. There is no cost for signing up and plenty of reasons why you’ll be thrilled at what we have created for you, the network marketing sales representative who is frustrated at the current MLM business paradigm.
